Movies you've just watched

[Vexorg]

Space Jam: A New Legacy: *1/2

WAG (Warner Animation Group) has a bad tendency to try to cram way too much stuff into every single movie they make, and it shows here. It's one thing to make a Looney Tunes (or Lego, or Batman, or whatever) movie, it's another thing entirely to feel like you need to cram every other significant IP you've got in there too, and the stuffed this one to the gills with it. Add one of the most polarizing figures (LeBron James) in sports as your star, give him a fictitious family and one of the most generic villains you could imagine, and you've got a film that looks like an industrial accident at the Technicolor factory. The one thing that somewhat redeems it is the Looney Tunes characters which they didn't mess up too badly (a rather low bar unfortunately,) but the relatively poor box office performance of this movie is probably a significant factor that contributed to the still ongoing Coyote Vs. Acme debacle.

[Lord British]

Huh? Even less than said Parè? He would have my vote, hence my mention. Anyway, that didn't happen.
After The Warriors Hill cast Remar as psycho in 48H.

I love James Remar (In fact I even wrote a song called "James Remar"), but the only lead role I saw him in was this movie "Quiet Cool" which I thought was kind of a throwaway. So it goes. One Parè film I actually liked was The Philadelphia Experiment, but I haven't seen that since the 80s.

[Lord British]

Mephisto - 1981 - István Szabó (Hungary/Austria/W.Germany)




Great movie in seeing the Nazi's rise to power, this one about a middling thespian aspiring to become a famous actor. As his colleagues flee (or are taken away) one by one, Hendrick seizes the moment by selling his soul to the Nazis to play Mephisto in the production of Faust; ironically mirroring exactly what the story of Faust is about. I thought it was really well done and sits nice alongside Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum as a German-made study on the subject. Watched on Prime

[Lemnear]

I've been looking for it for a while, it's a movie i saw a long time ago when i was little.
Year 2003 (i don't know what year the film is from though), dark medieval steam punk, with knights with RoboCop helmets and swords throwing spinning saws... and there was a black monster in a castle with many hands.
I have vague memories and no idea what the fuck it is and i've been looking for it for a while

[Lord British]

Underground - 1995 - Emir Kusturica - (Serbia)



This is an almost 3hr, completely bonkers movie set in Belgrade at the beginning of WWII, and later in 1992 during the Yugoslav wars. It's very much a comedy with serious themes underneath. Starts strong, dips a bit in the second act, but finishes strong. Definitely a one-of-a-kind in its time. Watched on Prime w/ a free trial.

[emphatic]

Underground - 1995 - Emir Kusturica - (Serbia)

https://preview.redd.it/underground-199 ... c658561d70

This is an almost 3hr, completely bonkers movie set in Belgrade at the beginning of WWII, and later in 1992 during the Yugoslav wars. It's very much a comedy with serious themes underneath. Starts strong, dips a bit in the second act, but finishes strong. Definitely a one-of-a-kind in its time. Watched on Prime w/ a free trial.

You should check out Black Cat, White Cat from the same director. It's movie magic.

[BryanM]

Is there really anything else out there with the same vibe as the original Ghostbusters? The closest I've ever seen is the first half of The Frighteners.

The whole 'memba berries thing... Ghostbusters was a sarcastic 80's comedy, like The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, etc. It was a one-off throwaway thing with a little bit bigger budget. (Sentimentality and self-reference were completely absent of such things!) AT-AT walkers were a gizmo made for one throwaway action setpiece.

Eyepatch Wolf's Space Jam 2 video was a million times more entertaining to me than anything Hollywood has put out, in a long time.

I've been looking for it for a while, it's a movie i saw a long time ago when i was little.
Year 2003 (i don't know what year the film is from though), dark medieval steam punk, with knights with RoboCop helmets and swords throwing spinning saws... and there was a black monster in a castle with many hands.

I asked Bard and it tried to give me things like Sky Captain and when I yelled at it, Krull.

The early half of the 80's had a fair plethora of dark fantasy flicks, no doubt due to a short Conan phase. You might have to get on IMDB and start looking there. If it wasn't made in english, that makes it both a lot easier and a lot harder to find, in different ways.

[GaijinPunch]

8 1/2
Federico Fellini's "eight and a half-th" film. An autobiographical tale of a director, in true pimp form, and, to put it bluntly, everyone up his ass. Beautiful women and choreography coupled with excellent cinematography make this one stand out. (I had to pause and go back numerous times to take screen grabs for photography inspiration). Kick ass poster too, which perhaps I'll post in the posters thread.

Stalker
Kind of a rewatch for me as I was kinda drunk the first time I watched this and faded in and out -- on the same flight to Japan, as it were. Stayed awake this time, despite the long run time. After having watched Nostalghia, it is a bit surprising coming back to this and finding it a bit more digestible, but only marginally. As with any Tarkovsky I've seen, just about any frame could go up in a museum. Lots of decrepit buildings with standing water in them. A dark film on its own, but even moreso when you consider that, by most accounts, this is the one that probably killed him (and his wife and the lead).

Dune: Part 2
Maybe you've heard of it? I thought it was great. I saw it on a massive IMAX in Shinjuku. Apparently the one in Ikebukuro is bigger? Man, crazy. Sound was dope.

La Strada
An earlier Felini, starring his real life wife. A woman finds herself on the road with a benefactor of sorts, as they make ends meet as circus performers. Pretty delightful for the most part, but don't think that it's all fun and games. Definitely has some darkness to it as well. Not nearly as grand as 8 1/2, (it predates it by many years) but some campy numbers. The protagonist (of sorts) is portrayed by a very young Anthony Quinn... weird. TIL he was in fact Mexican and just went to Italy to work. Not sure where or when he learned "Spanish on Hard Mode" (aka Italian) but apparently he played Italian speaking roles quite a bit.

[GaijinPunch]

Tarkovsky truly tests my patience while watching his films, but they linger in my mind quite a bit afterwards after finishing. Mirror is the one that went completely over my head, and that was the shortest in length!

Mirror was pretty brutal... and yes, it's quite short!

[GaijinPunch]

Irréversible - 2002 - Gaspar Noé (France)

So yeah, I finally watched this very-hyped movie found at the top of most of the "Most disturbing/shocking/soul-crushing films, etc" lists. It lived up to the hype and I found it to be pretty amazing though it's likely to give you scars; the violent scenes in this you'll never forget. See spoiler

Spoiler

It's fair to me to warn that there's a brutal rape scene of Monica Bellucci that lasts about 10 minutes

The movie is sequenced like Nolan's Momento where the scenes are shown in reverse order. I found this to be very effective as the movie reached the end. The style of it is amazing; the camerawork, the darkness, the colors, and the soundtrack. I'd seen Noé's Enter The Void a couple of times, and this one is consistent with that. If you can handle Aronofsky movies then this one is a high reco. Watched on Prime doing a free trial thingy.

I've been told various things about the intensity. Some have said similar to you. Some have said, "it's truly Irreversible... don't watch it", and one told me "there's one pretty bad part - the rest you've seen worse". So... yeah. I get a lot of my film watching on planes these days and there's no fucking way I'm doing that with this. I watched Airplane on a flight back from Tokyo last year and had an 8 year old kid next to me. I just knew he was gonna look over and see those tits (my first cinematic nudity experience btw).

My partner is Italian and quite a film buff. I recommended her Enter the Void and she made the connection to Irreversible which she had seen and liked. We're both big Monica Bellucci fans [squirt emoji]. So I guess... I'll watch it? Still not sure -- it's been on my list for a decade.

[Lemnear]

Is there really anything else out there with the same vibe as the original Ghostbusters? The closest I've ever seen is the first half of The Frighteners.

The whole 'memba berries thing... Ghostbusters was a sarcastic 80's comedy, like The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, etc. It was a one-off throwaway thing with a little bit bigger budget. (Sentimentality and self-reference were completely absent of such things!) AT-AT walkers were a gizmo made for one throwaway action setpiece.

Eyepatch Wolf's Space Jam 2 video was a million times more entertaining to me than anything Hollywood has put out, in a long time.

I've been looking for it for a while, it's a movie i saw a long time ago when i was little.
Year 2003 (i don't know what year the film is from though), dark medieval steam punk, with knights with RoboCop helmets and swords throwing spinning saws... and there was a black monster in a castle with many hands.

I asked Bard and it tried to give me things like Sky Captain and when I yelled at it, Krull.

The early half of the 80's had a fair plethora of dark fantasy flicks, no doubt due to a short Conan phase. You might have to get on IMDB and start looking there. If it wasn't made in english, that makes it both a lot easier and a lot harder to find, in different ways.

It's not Krull

Strange that i can't find it because it is so specific in its design.
They had swords with attached rotating throwing blades and by slashing (into air ahah) they threw that circular blade....robocop helmets, steam machines....

Overall it felt much more 2000s, so roughly in keeping with the era. Wtf how is possible that i can't find it

[Lord British]

You should check out Black Cat, White Cat from the same director. It's movie magic.

Added

[Lord British]

Tarkovsky truly tests my patience while watching his films, but they linger in my mind quite a bit afterwards after finishing. Mirror is the one that went completely over my head, and that was the shortest in length!

Mirror was pretty brutal... and yes, it's quite short!

Finished The Sacrifice a couple days ago. Uggh. Also a slog. I think Nostalghia is the last I need to watch.

[Lord British]

La Strada
An earlier Felini, starring his real life wife. A woman finds herself on the road with a benefactor of sorts, as they make ends meet as circus performers. Pretty delightful for the most part, but don't think that it's all fun and games. Definitely has some darkness to it as well. Not nearly as grand as 8 1/2, (it predates it by many years) but some campy numbers. The protagonist (of sorts) is portrayed by a very young Anthony Quinn... weird. TIL he was in fact Mexican and just went to Italy to work. Not sure where or when he learned "Spanish on Hard Mode" (aka Italian) but apparently he played Italian speaking roles quite a bit.

This and Nights of Cabiria are my two favorite Fellini films, and Giulietta Masina might be my favorite actress

[Lord British]

I just knew he was gonna look over and see those tits (my first cinematic nudity experience btw).

Same here. That and Large Marge from PWBA were the top rewinds back in the day.

My partner is Italian and quite a film buff. I recommended her Enter the Void and she made the connection to Irreversible which she had seen and liked. We're both big Monica Bellucci fans [squirt emoji]. So I guess... I'll watch it? Still not sure -- it's been on my list for a decade.

Yeah, you'll be fine. I basically agree with what you "heard".

[Lord British]

The Seduction Of Mimi - 1972 - Lina Wertmüller (Italy)



Hard to explain this one, but if I were using hashtags it would be: #Italian #Comedy #Mafia #Communism #Rapey Scenes #Female Directed

I liked this one

[Some-Mist]

lousy carter is a top tier bob byington mumblecore up there with the color wheel and harmony and me. david krumholtz will always be hard to not see as bernard from the santa clause despite how many roles he's in, but he's really enjoyable to watch on screen and listen to in podcast interviews. lousy carter itself had more twists than the typical byington flick, and the cast is pretty well rounded including martin starr, stephen root, macon blair, and olivia thirlby

bought it from amazon to support bob byington and cast cause I want him to keep them coming

[GaijinPunch]

I just knew he was gonna look over and see those tits (my first cinematic nudity experience btw).

Same here. That and Large Marge from PWBA were the top rewinds back in the day.

My partner is Italian and quite a film buff. I recommended her Enter the Void and she made the connection to Irreversible which she had seen and liked. We're both big Monica Bellucci fans [squirt emoji]. So I guess... I'll watch it? Still not sure -- it's been on my list for a decade.

Yeah, you'll be fine. I basically agree with what you "heard".

Good info as always. "Top rewinds". LMAO. These fucking kids today have no idea what it was like...

[BryanM]

Strange that i can't find it because it is so specific in its design.
They had swords with attached rotating throwing blades and by slashing (into air ahah) they threw that circular blade....robocop helmets, steam machines....

Overall it felt much more 2000s, so roughly in keeping with the era. Wtf how is possible that i can't find it

Hrm, as librarian of internet I have to give it a serious go....

A decent contender is Beowulf, 1999 movie.

If this is it, Bard gets zero points. Yandex gets zero points. And google can get a couple points, but only as an index service for Reddit.

.... fuckin' reddit really is becoming the internet....

Same here. That and Large Marge from PWBA were the top rewinds back in the day.

Kentucky Fried Movie was absolutely ridiculous. You'd never see a sketch like that in a modern R-rated movie.

Horrible Saw-torture is fine tho, because reasons.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There was a proper sequel to the Kentucky Fried Movie with "Amazon Women on the Moon" released on the silver screen back in 1987. There were two different versions but the "R" rated version is the one to watch compared to the tamer PG-13 rated version.

The movie of "National Lampoon's Movie Madness" circa 1981 was one of those completed and finished in it's entirety but the film studio ultimately decided not release it on the big screen. It appears on TCM from time to time.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Lord British]

The Mother And The Whore - 1973 - John Eustache (France)



This was well worth the wait. Finally added to Criterion this month, this is a 3hr40min movie about a young man (Alexandre) who's in a open relationship with his roommate (Maria) and eventually sets his sights on a young nurse (Veronika), eventually leading to a ménage à trois. The ménage à trois aspect of the film is actually only a small part of the movie because the actual ménage à trois doesn't unfold until much later in it, it's more about the jealousy beforehand. So you could say this movie is mostly about sexual mores/politics, but its more than that. Alexandre is a total pseudo-intellectual twat, but you don't need to like him to like the film. Whatever the film is about, it's written and directed and acted masterfully, I wasn't bored for a second and I think it really stands the test of time. Classic.

[Lord British]

Tales From The Gimli Hospital - 1988 - Guy Maddin (Canada)



This is Maddin's first film and it's basically his Eraserhead. Don't expect to make any sense of it, lol, though the movie is aware of itself in that regard. It showcases his trademark silent film style that he would later use in films like Careful. It's actually not a bad place to start as long as you understand that he would later do different stuff like Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (a color film) and The Saddest Music In The World . Also, its only 65min. It's funny and weird and looks beautiful for what it is. Watched on Prime.

[Lord British]

The Purple Rose of Cairo - 1985 - Woody Allen



This is my favorite Woody Allen film so far and it only runs about 80min. Mia Farrow plays a woman in the 1930s who repeatedly visits the theater to watch the film "The Purple Rose of Cairo" to escape her abusive husband (Danny Aiello). Upon her umpteenth visit, Jeff Daniels' character walks out of the movie screen towards Farrow and professes his love for her. This pisses off the audience because their movie experience is ruined, and the cast of the film on the screen is pissed too because they have to wait for Daniels to jump back into the screen for the movie to continue. So that's the world of this one, it works as a pulp love story but also as a satire of the movie industry. Bonus points if you happen not to like Woody Allen on the screen because he doesn't act in this one. Watched on Prime.

[Lemnear]

Strange that i can't find it because it is so specific in its design.
They had swords with attached rotating throwing blades and by slashing (into air ahah) they threw that circular blade....robocop helmets, steam machines....

Overall it felt much more 2000s, so roughly in keeping with the era. Wtf how is possible that i can't find it

Hrm, as librarian of internet I have to give it a serious go....

A decent contender is Beowulf, 1999 movie.

If this is it, Bard gets zero points. Yandex gets zero points. And google can get a couple points, but only as an index service for Reddit.

.... fuckin' reddit really is becoming the internet....

I think this is it
Funny how i only saw it ONCE and somehow have some vague memories of it, i also found Vidocq...or Frailty for the same reason .
Of course they're all "horrible" pseudo-trash.
But i needed it

[BryanM]

Eh! Everything is trash. If it's not educational, it's just killing time. Trash that knows it's trash is the best trash, sometimes.

Watched the teaser for the new Alien movie. Eh, was a little surprised. I think it could be good. "Good" as an Alien movie can be, when all the low hanging fruit has been plucked.

That quote from James Cameron about the third film: "You can only hit the audience in the face with a two-by-four so many times until they stop being invested." He really is a guy who raises the bar. It kind of amazes me how many people in creative control don't grasp that the characters are the most important part of a story.

Scott's fetish for ruining the mystery (in direct opposition to the tenet that "fiction is supposed to be a machine to generate speculation". Stories that create more stories in people's imagination), Jesus, and sexy robots really feels like getting lost in the cornfield. (Some guy on the production crew seriously said we wouldn't "care" about the space jockey's story "unless it was our story", and hence: the dumbass xenogenesis shit.)

A movie about people in dingy space hallways getting eaten by monsters, while a cat's chastity is protected from the xenos? That's its bread and butter. It doesn't have to do anything new, we just have to give a shit a little about the characters. People to root for to get eaten, or not, or whatever.

There was a proper sequel to the Kentucky Fried Movie with "Amazon Women on the Moon" released on the silver screen back in 1987. There were two different versions but the "R" rated version is the one to watch compared to the tamer PG-13 rated version.

The movie of "National Lampoon's Movie Madness" circa 1981 was one of those completed and finished in it's entirety but the film studio ultimately decided not release it on the big screen. It appears on TCM from time to time.

Don't let me forget these exist. Be sure to hit me with a stick every few months, my boomer brain is probably going to forget.

[GaijinPunch]

Eh! Everything is trash. If it's not educational, it's just killing time. Trash that knows it's trash is the best trash, sometimes.

Watched the teaser for the new Alien movie. Eh, was a little surprised. I think it could be good. "Good" as an Alien movie can be, when all the low hanging fruit has been plucked.

The original is gonna make run through the theaters later this month I believe. I don't think I've ever seen it on the big screen.

[Lord British]

I Was Born, But... - Yasujirō Ozu - 1932 (Japan)



Another Ozu masterpiece! This one being a late-period silent film. Some elements of this were used again for his 1959 film Good Morning, told mostly through the eyes of two young boys. Their dad finds a new job and moves them to a Tokyo suburb, and their assimilation to the new environment is soon afflicted by a bully and his gang of toadies. They start skipping school because of this until they find an older boy to help ward of the the leader bully. The two brothers wind up taking the bullies place in a way, but what's important is that they are now more empowered and have learned little a bit about social survival. The kids in their gang also debate amongst themselves about which of their dads are the "most important", and one kid is the most confident on this subject because his dad has the nicest car of anybody. SPOILERS AHEAD Where the film takes a turn is when the kids attend the company party at their dad's boss's house. There, they show home movies filmed at the workplace where they see their dad in the film clowning about, making funny faces, basically pandering to the amusement of his higher-ups. After recently experiencing what its like to be bullied, this disgusts the two brothers; convincing them that their father is a loser. I'll leave it at that. It's a very charming movie that never goes easy on you. Ozu is a master framer and editor, and the style here is much different from his post-war films where the camera is usually still; here it actually moves a bit (crazy!). Anyways, strongly recommended, though Tokyo Story is probably the place to start. Watched on Criterion

[Some-Mist]

saw jackass 3D last night at a theater that just implemented XpanD 3D which was around 90% full. they sent out a list of rules about not touching the lenses and things you shouldn't do with the glasses, and prior to the presentation they stated that this was the single movie (out of a bunch of others they're showing) that convinced them to install the XpanD system.

10/10 would totally see the exact same movie again

[Vexorg]

Wish: **

Depending who you believe this film is either Disney's 100th anniversary tribute to its long legacy in animated filmmaking or ChatGPT's major motion picture debut. The debate as to whether or not AI was used to write this movie still seems to be ongoing, but regardless of the actual facts there's certainly enough lazy writing (especially the songs, Alan Menken would roll over in his grave if not for the fact that he's still alive) and bad pacing that if I was one of the writers on this film I don't think I'd want it on my resume. It also seems to borrow heavily from just about everything but Disney films, with some parts feeling like they borrowed much more heavily from Shrek than any Disney film, and the character of Star looking and feeling like a low-budget ripoff of a Luma from Super Mario Galaxy. The animation also feels like it's not up to the usual Disney standards (low as those may be these days), almost like they tried to go for a 2D animated look but missed the mark entirely. That said, I'd still watch this again before I'd ever go back and finish Strange World, which I stopped watching about halfway through and have no desire to ever finish.

[Lord British]

Three Colors: White - 1994 - Krzysztof Kieślowski (Polish/French)



I've put this off for a while because the first installment of this trilogy, "Blue", was so depressing. To my surprise, this turned out to be a pretty fun watch. The color white representing "Equality"; this is a story of revenge. Starts off with our Polish barber Karol Karol being humiliated in Paris divorce court, clumsily explaining via Polish translator that he could not consummate the marriage (to Julie Delpy), and his wife explains that she does not love him anymore; then splitsville. But that's not enough for his now ex-wife. She finds Karol sleeping in his (actually theirs) barber shop, she tries to have sex with him one more time, but once again he fails to launch. So then she pulls her pants up, walks to the front window curtains and sets them on fire, saying "They'll know you did this because you want revenge". No job and no wife, Karol is left with nothing but his large suitcase and forced to beg in the subway. So that's the beginning. Pretty entertaining and not too long. The last one Three Colors: Red is next for me, and that's supposed to be the best one from what I hear. Watched on Max.